Evening the Score
by kepulver
Summary: [G1, post TFTM] Steadfast comes across Swindle and Vortex taking a bit of belated revenge against Starscream postTFTM. Steadfast used by permission of RavenclawDevi


**Author's Notes:** Takes place at some point after the movie, but before Starscream's ghost began flitting around, circa 2005/2006. Steadfast's motivations are based in part on the LJ/Nexus RP AIM chat as well as a mix of her appearances in some of Devi's fics -- specifically _Bringing Down The Rain_ and _The Value of a Mech_. Any errors in character portrayal are, obviously, a case of me screwing up.

**Evening the Score**

Steadfast wasn't sure whether she should be amused or annoyed at Swindle and Vortex. On the one hand, their desecration of Starscream's memorial marker was ridiculously futile -- it wasn't as if they were destroying his actual body, after all. On the other hand, that was the marker _she_ had wanted to desecrate -- perhaps not as vigorously as Swindle and Vortex appeared to be going at it, but enough to know that she'd left a lasting mark and satisfied her desire to do _something_. And now, after all the trouble to sneak past Autobot lines and down into the crypt, it was beyond frustrating to find out that someone had beaten her here.

"Optics first," Swindle said. Somehow, Steadfast wasn't surprised that the little thief was the instigator in this childish farce. She was a bit surprised at the rank superstition of the whole tawdry ceremony. From what she could tell, it was a bastardized mix of old Trench Dweller hoodoo and simple ground pounder maliciousness.

"I know, Swindle," Vortex hovered in front of Starscream's marker's head and stabbed out, shattering each ruby-red optic in turn. Fragments of optical glass fell to the ground, tinkling softly as the fragments shattered still further. "So you can't see where you're going," Vortex said, almost intoning the words. "And you stumble blind through the afterlife."

"Audials." Swindle hopped up, firing his jump jets and hovering up to one side of Starscream's head. "You get the left, Vortex. I got the right."

Swindle pulled a crude, handmade shiv from a hatch in his leg armor, while Vortex simply removed one of his rotor blades. Either the two Combaticons counted privately before they stabbed at the sides of the marker's head or they had rehearsed to the point of being able to move in perfect sync. The blades stabbed either side of Starscream's head, near where the main audial arrays would be on a living being. "So your signals always drop, leaving you unable to call for help or hear the calls of those who would call you friend," Swindle said. Steadfast had to smirk at the sheer pompousness of Swindle's tone.

"His face is next, right?" Vortex asked. "I want to do his face, please? Can I do his face?"

Swindle sighed, long-sufferingly. "Fine, just make sure you do it right or it won't work," he said.

"I know how to do it, Swindle, I remember what Witness taught us as well as you do." Vortex flitted around and tilted his head as he studied the statue's cruelly handsome face before gouging a line that split the lips and ran down the throat, before stabbing into the join between throat and chest. "To steal your voice, leaving you unable to speak for aid or beg for comfort," Vortex said, making the curse sound almost cheerful. "And we know how much you loved the sound of your own voice, Screamer."

"Damnit, 'Tex! Stick to the damn ritual!" Swindle snarled, smacking Vortex in the back of the head.

Steadfast snickered, the sound echoing in the burial chamber. Swindle and Vortex froze, turning to try and find the source of the sound. "Who's there?" Vortex asked.

"C'mon out, whoever it is," Swindle said. "We can explain what we're doing. Nothing for you to worry about."

"Looks to me like you're trying to curse Starscream's spirit," Steadfast said, stepping partially out from cover. "And you're right, I'm not particularly worried about it -- just a bit unhappy that you beat me to it."

Swindle landed, head tilting to the side as he looked up at her. Above him, Vortex's head tilted in the same fashion. Steadfast smirked at both of them. "What? Surprised?"

"Yeah, kinda," Swindle said. "What's your beef with Starscream? He's one of your kind."

"He was a Seeker, but he was nothing like me." Steadfast glowered at Swindle, who shrugged and said "Sorry" in a way that made it clear he was anything but. "And I could ask the same of you two, after all if it wasn't for Starscream, you boys would still be locked up."

"Here we go again!" Vortex said, spinning his rotors.

"Do you have any idea how sick and tired we are of hearing that?" Swindle asked. "Just because Starscream busted us out of prison doesn't mean we have any reason to be grateful to the smelter bait."

"Really?" Steadfast crossed her arms over her chest. "I'd love to hear the reasoning behind that bit of logic; might actually make your 'Hey Galvatron, how much do you want for Metroplex's transformation cog?' routine make sense."

Vortex giggled. "She's got you there, Swindle," he said. "That was pretty dumb."

"Shove it, 'Tex," Swindle said. "Look, Screamer busted us out because he wanted stooges -- same reason he saved Skyfire, same reason he went after Red Alert, same reason he made alliances with anybody he thought he could use for his own benefit. Once we weren't useful to him anymore, he abandoned us to our fate. Only reason we're still alive is because Megatron thought Bruticus was a good addition to the Empire, otherwise we'd have been back in room 217 so fast it would have been like we'd never left."

"Well, what was left of room 217," Vortex said. "Screamer kinda blew it up on the way out."

"Yeah," Swindle said. "He slaughtered Sunbow knows how many prisoners just to cover his escape."

Steadfast snorted, looking down at Swindle. "Rather hypocritical coming from someone responsible for the slaughter of, quote-Sunbow knows how many-end quote equally defenseless civilians."

Swindle's face screwed up in a tight, angry knot. "Those civilians all had the chance to run," Swindle said. "More of a chance than those poor clinkers had. They couldn't get away, they were stuck there and Starscream killed them like they were nothing."

Steadfast had to admit, the little psychopath had a point. "Alright, but still, you're alive, why do you care what Starscream did to those prisoners?"

"I don't," Swindle said. "We don't, it just fuses my circuits that Starscream went around like he was coated with freakin' Teflon. He should have been executed a hundred times over for the slag he pulled on Megatron, but instead all he had to do was snivel and whine and maybe take a beating at the worst and the next thing you know, Megatron's acting like it's old times again."

"Still, he surely got what was coming to him," Steadfast said. "Galvatron certainly ended him effectively."

"And we missed it!" Vortex drooped, lowering almost to the ground. "Of all the times to be stuck back on Earth! It wasn't fair!"

"Starscream's fault?" Steadfast asked, in an innocent tone that made Swindle's scowl deepen.

"No," he said. "Megatron's orders. Somebody had to keep an eye on the undersea base. We got the tap so we got to watch everything on the monitors."

"'Least we got it on tape. And it coulda been worse," Vortex said. "We could have been part of the attack on Autobot City. Knowing our luck, we'd have been the first outta the shuttle."

Now it was Steadfast's turn to scowl. "Yes, well," she said. "So, you're trying to get your revenge on the spiritual plane...I'd never have figured you boys for the religious type."

Swindle shrugged. "I hedge my bets," he said, looking uncomfortable. "Y'know, just in case all that stuff about all becoming one is true."

"Besides," Vortex said. "Even if it doesn't work, it feels good."

"I'm sure," Steadfast said.

"Yeah, it does." Swindle stepped closer, looking Steadfast up and down. "So...what are you doing down here? Word on the grapevine was that you're not exactly Screamer's biggest fan either."

"No, I'm not." Steadfast looked back at Swindle, keeping her gaze as level and unashamed as Swindle's was. "He...hurt someone very dear to me."

Swindle started to smirk but something -- surely not a sense of decency, by all reports Swindle had sold that vorn ago -- made him stop. "Yeah, I think I might have heard something about that. Thundercracker was okay." Even more surprising than Swindle showing tact was the fact he left 'for a Seeker' off of the end of the sentence. "He was pretty decent to us."

"Yeah, Onslaught liked him. And Blast Off thought he was cute," Vortex said, causing both Steadfast and Swindle to look back at him. "...why else do you think he kept making privacy screens with the wing stitch in blue and grey? He was just too kakalak to show 'em to TC."

Steadfast hid her grin behind her hand, gently amused not only at the idea of Blast Off's unrequited crush on Thundercracker but by the utterly stunned look on Swindle's face. "Anyway," she said. "The reason I'm here is because I wanted to get in a few good licks on Starscream's marker myself. Only you guys beat me to it."

"So how come you were doing all that traitor's advocate slag?" Swindle asked.

"Because I was curious why somebody else would risk capture by the Autobots to smash up a statue that'll likely be replaced once somebody notices the damage has been done," Steadfast said. "Even some of the Autobots think of Starscream as a hero of the fight against Unicron -- apparently somebody spotted a red, blue and grey Seeker and got the wrong idea."

Swindle groaned. "It figures! It just slaggin' figures! If I had his luck, I'd own this quadrant by now!"

"Hey! Steadfast! You want to help us out?" Vortex danced eagerly in mid-air. "We still got the wings and his arm canons and his feet and a bunch of other stuff we gotta mutilate and then we gotta dump tainted fuel on him to seal the curse! You wanna help? C'mon Swindle, say she can help! She's a Seeker! She's gonna know all kinda places we never thought of to hurt him!"

Swindle looked up, rolling his head back and forth over his shoulders. "...if you wanna, sure," Swindle said. "For, y'know, TC's sake. Warpo's too."

Steadfast chuckled, shaking her head at the strangeness of it all -- it was possibly the politest offer to help desecrate a corpse she'd ever received. "Alright," she said. "Let's start with the wings. Follow my lead and I promise you, we'll make sure Starscream feels it even if he's one with the Matrix."


End file.
